Free Demon Hunters 1: Blood Sacrifice (Stand Alone Series) (Demon Hunters.) by Avril Sabine Page B

her and she couldn’t continue.
    Alex held out the hand that had been holding the car door. “Come inside. You don’t have to see any of my family. There’s a lounge room just off the entrance hall. You can be alone in there.”
    Alyssa looked at his hand warily. “How many will be inside?”
    “I don’t know. It varies. Usually no more than twenty. But we’ve been known to have three times that many here during large operations. And celebrations.”
    Alyssa hesitantly took Alex’s hand and let him draw her out of the car. She was relieved he let her hand go the moment she was out. She adjusted her handbag strap so it lay more comfortably across her chest and shoulder. She was amazed she still had it. Alex took a step away from her. She was glad it was Alex who’d stayed outside with her. He might be more intense than the other two, but she felt safer and relaxed with him. His serious expression made her think he was someone who could be counted on in a crisis. She guessed they all could be, after all, what could be worse than facing demons?
    Alex gestured towards the front door. “The lounge room?”
    Alyssa nodded. She guessed she had to do something. It wasn’t like she could stand by the car all day. As soon as she nodded, Alex walked to the front door and held it open for her. When she was inside, he opened a door on the right of the entrance hall. She glanced around. There were two closed doors on her left and a door straight ahead. On either side of the front door were racks hung with coats and hats and wooden boxes with a jumble of shoes.
    “Allie? Did you want to go somewhere else instead?”
    Alyssa quickly shook her head and crossed the off-white tiles to enter the lounge room. A pale brown lounge suite was scattered in the middle of the room with a rustic coffee table and a couple of large footstools. Pictures of what Alyssa guessed were family members hung in groups on the walls and there was a long display cabinet filled with ornaments along one wall. Opposite the door the wall was taken up by floor to ceiling bookcases with glass doors. To her right a large window spilled light into the room.
    “Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable.”
    Alyssa worried at her lower lip with her teeth. “I can’t. I’ll make a mess of them. I need to wash.”
    “They can be cleaned. But if it bothers you, there are throw rugs in the footstools.”
    Alyssa felt like asking Alex how dense he was. Her cheeks coloured at the thought of having to ask him to use the toilet. And the blood. She had to get rid of the blood. She continued to worry at her bottom lip.
    “The door across from this one in the entrance hall is a bathroom. If you want to have a wash, I’ll organise a change of clothes for you. There’s a bathrobe behind the door you can use and towels in the cupboard just inside the door.”
    “Thanks.” Alyssa stepped back into the entrance hall. She was in the bathroom in seconds, the door closed and locked. The off-white and cream colour scheme was in the bathroom too, but they had also added a few touches of gold. When Alyssa saw the bathtub, her eyes watered and she slid to the floor. She rested her head against the door, eyes closed as she desperately tried to hold on a little longer. The pressure of her bladder soon had her rising to her feet to use the toilet.
    While she was on her feet, she started to run a bath, grabbed a towel from the cupboard and ditched her handbag, clothes and bandaids in a pile on the floor. She quickly hopped in and closed her eyes, sinking beneath the water. When she came up, she gasped at the colour of the water. She frantically searched for the plug. Her hands trembled so badly she could barely pull it. She watched as the discoloured water slowly drained away. Sitting in the tub as the water continued to run she could only shiver uncontrollably as silent tears ran down her face. She tried to force herself to move, but the sight of the blood coloured water had been too